Juliana, prioress of Sopewell nunnery, near St Albans, was the daughter of Sir James Berners, who was beheaded in the reign of Richard II. She was celebrated for her beauty, her spirit, and her passion for field sports. To her are attributed the treatises on "Hawkyng," Huntynge, and Fysshynge with an Angle; also a right noble Treatysse on the Lygnage of Cot Armours, endyng with a Treatyse which speyfyeth of Blasynge of Armys." Bernersville printed in folio by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496. The first and rarest edition, printed at St Albans in 1486 does not contain the treatise on fishing. Juliana Berners is noticed by Ames and Wharton; and Hazlewood, who published an edition of the work (in facsimile of that of Wynkyn de Worde) in 1811, folio, London, has more lately examined, with industry and ability, the fair author's claims to figure as the earliest female writer in the English language.